I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought; that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the Earth-jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name. (Amos 4:9-13 ASV)

Amos lists all the things that have happened to them, yet they still refused to turn back to God. “Prepare to meet they God” are haunting words. Note here how long suffering The Lord was in giving every opportunity for them to turn back to Him. God still gives us those same opportunities.

Application to me – I don’t always recognize the road blocks in my path that are opportunities to turn back to God. God always provides an escape from temptation, if we stay close to Him, it is easier to see.